Professional Statement
Nev Jones is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh, with affiliate appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and the Institute for Bioethics. She joined Pitt in 2021, having previously held faculty appointments in the Department of Mental Health Law & Policy and Department of Psychiatry at the University of South Florida and a clinical affiliate appointment at the Yale University School of Medicine. She completed her PhD in Community Psychology at DePaul University, holds master’s degrees in Community Psychology and in Continental Philosophy, and was a Mind & Culture Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychiatry and Medical Anthropology at Stanford University.
Dr. Jones’s research spans public-sector services for serious mental illness, applied mental health services research and policy, the ethics of coercive psychiatric treatment, and the integration of lived experience into research, policy, and practice. Much of her current work examines the ethical and policy dimensions of civil commitment, antipsychotic decision-making and discontinuation, disability and Social Security policy, and the design of early psychosis services. Across these areas she brings sustained attention to epistemic justice, structural disadvantage, and the moral standing of service users and survivors in mental health systems.
Her scholarship has appeared in journals including JAMA Psychiatry, Lancet Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Psychological Medicine, Psychiatric Services, and World Psychiatry, and she has contributed multiple chapters to bioethics and medical humanities collections. She holds multiple active R01 and other extramural grants and serves on numerous national and international advisory bodies addressing compulsory treatment, lived experience integration, and the transformation of mental health services research.
Dr. Jones teaches doctoral and master’s-level courses in mental health theory, policy, and qualitative methods, and she mentors doctoral students and early-career scholars, including those with lived experience of psychiatric disability. She serves on the Allegheny County Mental Health & Intellectual Disabilities Board and the County’s AOT Advisory Group, and her public scholarship engages critically with dominant frameworks in mental health policy, diagnosis, and coercive care. In 2025 she was elected to the National Academy of Social Insurance and received the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award.
Appointments
- Associate Professor (with Tenure) School of Social Work
- Affiliate Faculty Department of Psychiatry University of Pittsburgh
- Faculty Affiliate Institute for Bioethics
Education and Training
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Psychiatry & Medical Anthropology), Stanford University, 2014–15
- PhD, Community Psychology, DePaul University, 2014
- MA, Community Psychology, DePaul University, 2012
- MA, Continental Philosophy, DePaul University, 2009
- Postgraduate Research Fellowship (Cross-Cultural Studies & Philosophy), Nanzan Institute for Religion & Culture, Nagoya, Japan, 2006–07
- BA, Philosophy (minor in Political Theory), summa cum laude, University of Oregon, 2006
Professional Interests in Bioethics
- Ethics of Coercive Psychiatric Treatment (Civil Commitment & Assisted Outpatient Treatment)
- Epistemic Justice and Lived Experience in Mental Health
- Autonomy, Informed Consent, and Antipsychotic Decision-Making
- Disability, Poverty, and Justice in Public Mental Health Systems
- Participatory and Community-Engaged Research Ethics
- Critical Mental Health, Mad Studies, and the Politics of Diagnosis
Representative Publications
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Jones, N., Callejas, L., Pagdon, S. & McNemar, S. (2026). Risks of tokenism, potential for democratization?: Integrating lived experience into research on ‘serious mental illness.’ In Mental Health Ethics: Current Controversies and Emerging Debates. Oxford University Press.
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Jones, N. & Jacobs, L. (2024). Abolitionist and harm reduction praxis for public sector mental health services: An application to involuntary hospitalization. Abolition and Social Work. Haymarket Press.
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Jones, N. (2024). Structural Competency meets Mad Studies: Reckoning with madness and mental diversity beyond the social and structural determinants of mental health. Mad Studies Reader. Edited Bradley Lewis & Jazmine Russell.
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Jones, N., Mascayano, F., Susser, E. & Yang, L. (2023). Forecasting the future: Lived experience and the transformation of mental health services research in the United States. Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics.
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van der Ven, E., Jones, N., Bareis, N., Scodes, J., Dambreville, R., Ngo, H., Mathai, C. Bello, I…. & Wall, M. (2022). An intersectional approach to ethnoracial disparities in pathways to care among individuals with psychosis in Coordinated Specialty Care. JAMA Psychiatry.
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Brown, M., & Jones, N. (2021). Service user participation within the mental health system: Deepening engagement. Psychiatric Services, 72(8), 963-965.
Recent Funding
- NIMH R01: A Service User Informed Study of the Structure and Impact of CCBHCs. Role: Multiple Primary Investigator (with Josh Breslau, RAND). Total award: $3, 600, 000. 2024–28.
- NIMH R01 MH125868: Optimizing Disability Benefit Decisions and Outcomes in First Episode Psychosis. Role: Multiple Primary Investigator (with Howard Goldman, Maryland). Total award: $3, 600, 000. 2022–27.
- New York Office of Mental Health: A Hybrid Implementation Effectiveness Evaluation of Assisted Outpatient Treatment in New York State. Role: Co-Primary Investigator (with Bevin Croft, HSRI). Total award: $1, 000, 000. 2024–27.
- NIMH P01: Connection Learning Healthcare System. Role: Co-Investigator and R34 MPI (with Melanie Bennett, University of Maryland, PI). Total award: $5,000,000. 2024–27.
- NSF SCC-CIVIC-PG Track B: Strengthening Peer-Run Community Mental Health Services through Participatory AI Design. Role: Co-PI (with Hong Shen and Fei Fang, Carnegie Mellon University; Peggy Swarbrick, CSPNJ). Total award: $700, 000. 2025–26.
- Retirement & Disability Research Center, Social Security Administration: A Qualitative Investigation of Work-Related Decision Making Among SSI Recipients. Role: Co-Primary Investigator (with Katie Savin, California State University – Sacramento). Total award: $160, 000. 2024–25.
Awards and Honors
- Woodcock Endowed Public Lecture, Wellways Australia, 2026
- Drs. Fred and Penny Frese Endowed Lecture, Northeastern Ohio Medical University, 2026
- Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, University of Pittsburgh, 2025
- Elected Member, National Academy of Social Insurance, 2025
- National Academic Award, Students with Psychosis, 2024
- Judi Chamberlin Joy in Advocacy Award, National Coalition on Mental Health Recovery, 2022
- Pioneer Award, National Association of Peer Supporters (NAPS), 2021
- Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame, National Disability Mentoring Coalition, 2018
Media
- Jones, N & Reinhardt, E. (March 2026). Assisted Outpatient Treatment Doesn’t Work. Mamdani Could Stop It. The Nation. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/assistant-outpatient-treatment-mental-health-mamdani-community-safety/
- Morgan, J. (2022). Profile: Nev Jones – Fixing a broken system. The Lancet Psychiatry. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(21)00470-3/fulltext
- Aftab, A. (Oct 8, 2020). Phenomenology, Power, Polarization and Discourse on Psychosis: An interview with Nev Jones. Conversations in Critical Psychiatry. Psychiatric Times.
- Dobbs, D. (2017). The touch of madness. Pacific Standard Magazine.